


keep following the heartlines on your hand

by defcontwo



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 04:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/630162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defcontwo/pseuds/defcontwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He has always fallen in love with a sort of reckless abandon, like it's new every time, like he hasn't seen it all come apart so many times before.</p>
            </blockquote>





	keep following the heartlines on your hand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Smittywing (Smitty)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smitty/gifts).



It's the early hours of the morning, when New York hasn't quite woken up yet, and for a few precious hours, everything seems a little more still than it usually does. 

Clint should be asleep. 

Through the window in the dawn light, he can see the snow that blankets the world outside them, creating the illusion that it's just the two of them - the Hawkeyes against the world. Kate is asleep beside him, burrowed under a bunch of blankets, warm and present, but Clint feels tight and wired and all too awake. 

He's remembering this thing that Peter said to him once, eyes laughing, a light-hearted joke that he knows Peter hadn't meant to get stuck under Clint's skin like it has. _Clint Barton, World's Best Marksman and Serial Monogamist._

Serial monogamist. It doesn't paint an entirely inaccurate picture of the minefield that is his relationship history. He has always fallen in love with a sort of reckless abandon, like it's new every time, like he hasn't seen it all come apart so many times before. 

He never quite falls out of love, either, and he can't bring himself to regret that. His life is a patchwork made up of the people that have shaped him and they have all of them left their mark, for better or worse. 

But he's older now. He is more wary and even though he tells himself not to, he can't help but wonder when the other shoe will drop. He can't help but wonder what will fall apart this time. 

He has become comfortable with this, with him and Kate and the life that they've built together. Kate in his kitchen, making coffee in her underwear and teasing him when he can't figure out the crossword. Kate, always by his side in a fight, steady and determined and so good at what she does that it makes his breath catch to watch her. 

He is wide awake with the fear that he won't have it in him to pick himself up and dust himself off one more time. 

"I can hear you thinking from all the way over here," Kate's voice says, a soft sort of mumble in the quiet of their bedroom. 

Clint starts. "Go back to sleep, Katie." 

Kate huffs and rolls over, leaning up on one arm to meet his gaze. "Not if you're going to worry yourself into a frenzy over there, Barton. What is it this time?" 

Clint doesn't answer, just lowers his head to press a soft kiss to her shoulder. 

"So it's that again, is it," Kate says. 

Clint lets out a sigh and it's as good an answer as she's going to get. 

"We're here now, Clint. That's all that matters." 

She's right. He knows that she is and when she looks at him like that, all determination and easy affection, he believes it too. 

"Emotional crisis over?" 

"Emotional crisis over." 

"Now you've got me awake, you ass. Coffee, Hawkeye?" 

"Sounds good, Hawkeye," Clint says, as Kate shoves the covers out of the way and hop out of bed. He watches her as she makes her way across the room, towards the door to the kitchen. 

"You watching my ass, buddy?" Kate calls over her shoulder. 

"You bet." 

They're here now, Clint reminds himself, and the here and now is pretty damn good.


End file.
